Trust: Power Of The Employees!

It has long been claimed that a business’s greatest asset is its employees, and this may be truer than ever.

Edelman’s recent Trust Barometer, a global survey of more than 30,000 people, shows that confidence in employees of lower-medium seniority throughout an organisation rose from 34% to 50%  (as reported by PR Week on 27 April 2012).

On the contrary, the survey indicates that the credibility of chief executive officers has crashed by 12 points, to 38%, compared to 2011.

Against the backdrop of issues being played out in the media, such as over-inflated bonuses and chief executive officers stepping down from high profile roles, it is perhaps not surprising that there has been a shift in people’s perception about how businesses are structured and the integrity of senior management.

This research suggests that organisations must place greater value on the importance of the wider workforce, rather than just paying lip-service to the notion. Focusing on senior management to portray the voice of an organisation may not have as much credibility as harnessing the support of employees’.

This will become a particularly important tool for internal communicators who must ensure that messages are communicated effectively around an organisation and ensure senior management is not viewed suspiciously as a distrusted ‘other’ entity.

LD

Confusion and Conflict – It’s All Academic

A piece of research published earlier this year has resulted in a number of subsequent interesting media reports recently.

The research (published through the Paris School of Economics, http://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/docs/zucman-gabriel/sub_jan31.pdf) suggested that the raft of TIEAs signed over the last four years by offshore centres have not made very much difference in the total value of bank deposits they collectively hold.

No matter what side of the ‘tax haven’ debate fence you sit on, it does seem that there are some strange conflicting arguments entering into the equation here – particularly given this is a piece of academic research.

The research and subsequent media reports suggest, for example, that these TIEAs are ‘ineffective’. This is then followed up by claiming that ‘the [bank] deposit gains and losses correlate strongly with the number of treaties signed by each haven’. The Channel Islands, for example, have signed a significant number of such agreements which the research suggests has led to falls in their levels of bank deposits.

Either these tax agreements are useless, in which case they would have little impact, or they do serve a purpose, in which case presumably those intent on tax evasion would move their deposits elsewhere. Logically, both can’t be true?!

And surely there have been other reasons why the value of a jurisdiction’s bank deposits might fluctuate, other than the number of information exchange agreements it has - the volatility of the global markets as a result of the recession springs to mind.

It reminds me of some similarly illogical critiques that are regularly aimed at offshore centres – that they hamper the development of developing countries; that they divert tax revenues away from developed countries; that their days are numbered and that their assets are dwindling. Logically, not all these can be true.

In the lead up to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Mexico this year, on 18^th and 19^th June, there will inevitably be further anti-offshore campaigns and attempts to highlight the effectiveness (or otherwise) of information exchange agreements.

From a communications point of view, IFCs will do well to untangle the conflicting critiques that will likely be aimed their way in the coming weeks, and highlight the improbability or even impossibility of the charges they are faced with, with concrete, clear facts. Possibly even backed up with credible independent academic research…

AR

adam@crystalpr.co.uk

IFC Media Show A Growing Use of Twitter

This year, we decided to launch the ‘Crystal PR IFC Media Tweet-dex’, to get a better understanding of how the media in different International Finance Centres (IFCs) are using Twitter.

There’s no doubt that Twitter is being used more and more by media outlets for researching, breaking and developing news stories. In a market where there is such competition between jurisdictions, it’s interesting to put things in an international context.

Initially, the Index seeks to identify the most followed media and the keenest media users of Twitter across the chosen jurisdictions. The IFCs currently being monitored are the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey and Malta, with the key media in each jurisdiction being included in the results – the range of jurisdictions and media may be extended in due course.

The results for the first quarter of 2012, January to March, are as follows:

Tweet Frequency

This measures the number of tweets by each media, both as an accumulative total since they started tweeting and during the quarter. The key findings are as follows:

• Channel TV (@channelonline) was the most prolific media tweeter in the first quarter of 2012 with 1,086 tweets over the three month period. The Guernsey Press (@guernseypress) tweeted the second most (982 tweets).
• BBC Isle of Man tweeted the least during the quarter, 183 times 

Followers of IFC Media
 
This measures the popularity of each media Tweeter through the number of followers they have in total and the rate at which they are growing their number of followers. The key findings are as follows:

• The Isle of Man Examiner (@iomnewspapers) increased its number of followers most during the first quarter of 2012, by 23.8%. This was followed by BBC Radio Guernsey (@bbcguernsey) which increased its followers by 21.8%.
• Channel TV (@channelonline) is the most followed media in the IFCs with 3,585 followers. Jersey radio station Channel 103 (@channel103news) is second most followed (2,594).
• The Times of Malta (@thetimesofmalta) was the least followed media in the IFCs covered, with 479 followers. 
• Despite having the fifth highest number of followers, BBC Isle of Man (@bbcisleofman) increased its number of followers the least, by 6.6%.

These first quarterly results paint an interesting picture. Twitter is not being used by any one form of media, with a good mix of print and broadcast media using Twitter regularly. That Channel TV tops both the Tweet Frequency and Followers tables, and with BBC Guernsey and the Jersey Evening Post performing well in both set of results too, shows that there is a good correlation between how frequently Twitter is used and gaining followers.

Except for Malta, where the Times of Malta is both the least frequent and least followed media included, there is evidence of good use of Twitter across the IFCs, with the Channel Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and Isle of Man media all demonstrating a consistent use of Twitter.

To begin with, these results are fairly rudimentary – how frequently the media use Twitter and who is following them. In due course, the intention is that this Tweet-dex can be extended to include more jurisdictions and more media, and to analyse in greater detail the message content of the media using Twitter.

Adam Riddell

adam@crystalpr.co.uk

Offshore and City of London facing similar communication issues

During meetings in London this week, I was struck by thoughts from two senior media and communications professionals who expressed concern about how the City, and the various sectors within financial services, defend themselves.

Both felt that the City and the various sectors that collectively make up the financial services industry were not effectively promoting the value they bring. Recession and high profile issues such as banking collapses and redundancies have exacerbated this issue, as the media has given finance and business more profile but not necessarily helped to increase the public’s understanding of a complex financial system.

This is a question of education, with one of the professionals, from a leading funds association, claiming it was working hard to educate the lay-man about what the industry actually does, and the wider benefits that the industry contributes, through tax receipts, community investment and employment.

Both felt that greater engagement on a regulatory and political level was essential in ensuring policy-makers and politicians, who may not be financial experts, understand and are able to make regulatory changes that genuinely benefit the industries. This can only be achieved by adopting a more combative and engaging approach.

More locally, ‘offshore’ has become a pejorative term, and it seems that jurisdictions, such as Jersey and Guernsey, actually face the same communication and reputational issues as its larger counterparts. Although offshore, arguably, has the even harder task of ensuring that the City itself appreciates the value that business with offshore companies adds to the City.

LD

Transparency and the Offshore Legal Sector

Two phrases stood out in the latest review of the offshore marketplace by The Lawyer magazine. 

The journalist, who knows many lawyers in the offshore field, described the offshore legal industry as a 'murky world' and 'highly secretive'. She bases these opinions on the fact that unlike their UK counterparts the lawyers in offshore jurisdictions are reticent about revealing virtually any information about revenue and turnover. Less than a third of the firms in the magazine's annual survey provided any information on revenue. 

I think it's time that law firms responded to the market environment in which they work, in a similar fashion to the offshore jurisdictions. 

While some of the journalists comments may be borne out of frustration and the limited response, it is no longer acceptable for firms not to provide some measure of their financial performance if they want to be part of the more transparent world in which global financial services now exist.

We are all quick to complain when mainstream media categorise the offshore locations as secretive and opaque, but we are not helping ourselves when the category of professional which is our biggest export into the wider financial world continues to create this impression of secrecy - even with its own professional media. 

Perhaps through the various Law Societies, the firms could agree a format so that all firms provide similar data on revenue or on profits so as to help rid ourselves of this unhelpful image.

MS

(Local) Radio Gaga

The RAJAR figures out earlier this month should have given radio stations in the Channel Islands a reason to be optimistic.

Commercial station Channel 103 recorded its highest listener figures ever, with a weekly reach of 59% - the highest of any local radio station in the UK – whilst Island FM also achieved healthy figures, with a weekly reach of 49%.

Meanwhile, BBC Radio Jersey and Guernsey figures were up on the previous year. BBC Radio Guernsey was listened to by a record 24,000 people, with a weekly reach of 45% – the highest local BBC station in the country. BBC Radio Jersey’s audience figures were also up year on year by over 7%, increasing its market share to around 23%.

The signs are that people in the Channel Islands are tuning in increasingly to their local radio stations for news and local information.

These are useful statistics, particularly against the backdrop of the BBC Trust's recent decision to order the BBC to re-examine its plans to make local radio cuts. The BBC Trust’s chairman Lord Patten said: “Local and regional services…provide something unique for audiences that can otherwise be neglected by eh mainstream media”.

Compare this with Janet Street Porter's berating of local BBC content in The Independent (29^th January). “Local bulletins are necessary only twice a day in drivetime,” she wrote, adding: “The current local regions are so large as to be pointless.” Perhaps the Channel Islands, though, might be a special case?

Despite Street Porter's comments, local radio can be a hugely valuable media, and PR professionals should be aware of that. Businesses can often become obsessed with seeing their name in print in regional press, but radio has the advantage of being able to update its locally focused news in a timely fashion, as it develops.

At the same time, it is important that local radio stations continue to evolve to reflect the interests of their listenership. I often think, for example that, given the prevalence of the finance industry in Jersey and Guernsey, there is scope to produce some excellent business-specific programming on local radio. In the Isle of Man, Manx Radio has been doing this for some time with, in my opinion, great success.

Meanwhile, spare a thought for Manx Radio. It was reported recently that it is facing a cut in its government subsidy and consequently the need to axe jobs. It will be interesting to see how these cuts impact its listenership – it currently enjoys a healthy 58% listener share.

AR

Online challenges for PR professionals

Developments in online media are throwing up a range of new challenges for those of us in marketing and public relations.

In a previous edition of Crystal PR's newsletter, I spoke of the threat posed by inaccurate stories which while they may be subject to a correction in the printed format of a publication, may still appear online following a search of the media’s archive, without any reference to the correction, unless action is taken to ensure the media revise the online entry.

In recent weeks the Wikipedia site has been the subject of considerable controversy within the PR sector. PR practitioners at some of the biggest agencies have been accused of sureptitiously registering with the online giant in order that they can amend the ‘inaccurate’ entries of their corporate clients. In turn, PR professionals have argued that they had to resort to this action because untruthful and potentially damaging information on a company was remaining on the site for far too long before the Wikipedia content providers took action.

It is an unsatisfactory situation which both sides are hoping can be resolved. PR Week has reported that representatives from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and Wikipedia’s owners are planning to draw up a best practice guide. This would sit alongside the process by which individuals can apply to amend inaccurate content which is already available for everyone to use.   

No one can afford to ignore the potential impact of the Wikipedia site whose entries are invariably on the front page of any search results and which expects during the course of this year to reach 500 million unique users a month.

MS

Building relationships with the media should be a matter of course

After a trying time from the media when its results were announced three weeks ago, Tesco’s COO has now been moved to a different role.

The media showed no sympathy for Tesco when it announced a plunge in share prices in January, bucking a trend for consistent growth. It has been suggested by at least one commentator that journalists exacted retribution on the company for its closed-off approach to the media during the good times.

Building positive relationships with key journalists on a consistent basis is just as important during boom and bust. The media’s collective treatment of Tesco when it announced its results, and the embarrassment created by its chief operating officer selling shares a week before the results announcement, should encourage businesses to engage and respect the media as a voice for reaching the wider public and its influence in forming opinions.

Perhaps Tesco’s senior management will be counselled by PR advisers to take pains to establish relationships with the media and foster an open dialogue. It could be argued that had this approach already been in place, Tesco may have been treated more moderately by the media when the profit announcement was made.

LD